Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet looks at the camera in an institutional portrait from December 2014, chosen to illustrate her return to the presidential debate. Credits: Arnaud Perrin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet announced on Tuesday, June 2, on France Inter that she is supporting Édouard Philippe for the 2027 presidential election. The former minister says she favors his ability to "bring people together calmly" and rules out any personal candidacy. For the mayor of Le Havre, this endorsement mainly serves as a signal. He embodies a liberal, pro-European, anti-RN right that he wants to attract without pushing the center too hard.
A Direct Announcement on France Inter
A guest on France Inter, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet first closed the door on personal ambition. "I am not a candidate for anything," she said, before specifying her choice for 2027: "I will support Édouard Philippe." The brief statement was enough to put the former right-wing figure back into the presidential game.
She justified this support by her reading of the political moment. In her view, the changes linked to the energy transition, digital technology, and artificial intelligence call for a clear course. They also require a candidate capable of gathering people together. In her reasoning, Édouard Philippe is not just Emmanuel Macron’s former Prime Minister. He is presented as an official able to engage in dialogue within a fragmented political space.
That nuance matters. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet did not announce a role on a campaign team, nor did she detail any official mission. She only said she wants to do "what will be useful." She is thinking in particular of the issues she has worked on since withdrawing from elective life. At this stage, her role therefore remains political and symbolic, more than organizational.
A Profile Useful to Philippe’s Moderate Right
The endorsement matters to Édouard Philippe. It comes from a personality whose career speaks to several strands of the right and center. A former minister of Ecology, Transport, Housing and Digital Affairs, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet long represented an urban right. She is liberal, pro-European and attentive to technological as well as environmental issues.
Defeated in the 2017 legislative elections, she withdrew from active political life. She had previously been the right’s candidate for the mayoralty of Paris. TF1 Info, with AFP, notes that she later lived and worked in the United States. The same source also mentions the Antin infrastructure fund and activities related to artificial intelligence, media and tech.
This background allows Édouard Philippe to present an endorsement that is not just an addition of notables. The circle around the president of Horizons praised her experience. In an AFP dispatch picked up by Boursorama, she is considered valuable on artificial intelligence and defense. The comment sheds light on the practical interest of the endorsement, even if it does not yet assign a position.
For Édouard Philippe, a declared candidate for 2027, the issue goes beyond Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet’s CV. It is about building an image of gathering. It must appeal to former LR profiles, to centrists and to disappointed or available Macronists. It also targets local elected officials who are looking for an offering distinct from both the Rassemblement National and the left. In this framework, the NKM–Édouard Philippe signal provides a marker. It designates a right that embraces modernization, Europe and distance from the far right.
The Border With the RN Remains Central
The endorsement also has significance because Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet maintains a line hostile to the Rassemblement National. On France Inter, she presented the RN as a political family that would not be a continuation of the right. In her view, that current would lead France "elsewhere." This position continues a consistent thread in her career.
Le Parisien thus recalls that she briefly spoke out again in June 2024. Éric Ciotti was then seeking an alliance with the RN for snap legislative elections. The newspaper links that episode to her earlier opposition to the "neither-nor" of 2015. At the time the right was debating its stance toward the Front National and the left in the second round of regional elections.
This consistency gives the endorsement of Édouard Philippe a clearer significance. It is not just a media comeback after several years of silence. It is also the inscription of a presidential choice within a line battle. Bringing together the right and the center, yes, but without normalizing the far right.
A Symbol, Not Yet a Measurable Momentum
The risk would be to overestimate the event. By itself, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet’s endorsement proves neither an electoral momentum nor a militant shift. No independent indicator allows one to say that it already changes the balance of power. Caution is warranted among Édouard Philippe, Gabriel Attal, Bruno Retailleau and other possible contenders for the 2027 presidential election.
Its usefulness lies elsewhere. It reinforces the idea that Édouard Philippe wants to speak to a governing right. This right does not identify with the radicalization of public debate. It also offers a counterpoint to competition from the presidential camp. Gabriel Attal is also trying to occupy the central space. On the LR side, Bruno Retailleau embodies a more identity-focused, law-and-order right.
The sequence therefore remains qualitative. It says something about the coalition Philippe hopes to make credible, more than about his ability to win. In presidential politics, that kind of signal still matters. It helps a candidate show his entourage, his priority issues and the boundaries he refuses to cross.
For Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, speaking out marks a cautious return. She does not resume a mandate, does not declare herself a leader, does not promise a ground campaign. She reappears as a thematic and political voice. Artificial intelligence, digital transformation, energy and democracy become the fields where she could contribute.
For Édouard Philippe, the operation is readable. With less than a year to the presidential election, every endorsement from the former moderate right helps to validate his narrative of gathering. NKM’s has particular value. It comes from an official who has been out of the game for a long time, is still identified, and is hard to reduce to a simple party reflex.